5 Ways to Prepare Your SEO Strategy for Voice Search

You’ve tailored your website’s design. You’ve got great content. Maybe you’ve even installed the SEO Booster plugin to get a leg up on your competition.

The way people search for information has changed on a fundamental level. All a user needs to do is press a button and wait for a trusty voice assistant to give them the info they seek.

One estimate suggests that around 60% of searches now come from a mobile device. Accordingly, you’ll need to think about how you tailor your content.

The popularity of voice search is at exciting and problematic.

Users now have access to more information than ever. But this means that companies are going to have to rethink their content.

Make no mistake, voice results do still rely on SEO, but you’ll need to change your strategies. Here are the essential strategies for preparing your SEO for voice search.

5 Ways to Prepare Your SEO for Voice Search

1. Understand That Voice Search Matters as Much as Written Content

One of the biggest ways to shoot yourself in the foot is by ignoring the massive power that voice-operated searches have. It’s a popular search method that is taking the world by storm and shows no signs of stopping.

Make sure that you and your business are aware of this. It can be easy to shrug off digital assistants as another tech fad like the Zune or Vine, but to do so could cost you millions.

Here’s the Bottom Line:

You may not like voice functions or think they’re important, but your customers do. They’re going to use it — with or without your company’s help.

Don’t sleep on the popularity that digital assistants have. While voice-based search functions were once just a way to show off your tech, these assistants are a fundamental part of many people’s lives now.

So now you and your company are left with a choice. You can ignore the massive popularity of voice searches, or you can get with the times.

While it’ll require a bit more effort on your part, make no mistakes, it will be worth it in the end. It has been estimated that voice usage will only increase after 2017.

2. Location Matters

You’re likely familiar with the importance of localized SEO results. If you’re not, listen up, because you’re missing out on a ton of potential traffic.

Utilizing local results is one of the easiest ways to increase your SERP and get your site traffic.

And even if you’re working on a national or multinational scale, local still matters. Google is going to pull results from a user’s geographic area whether they include a location in their search or not.

You’ve Likely Missed Out on Thousands of Hits if You Haven’t Tailored Your Content For a Local Audience.

Don’t forget to sign up for a Google My Business page. It’s an easy and free way to get more traffic to your site through better results.

So why does this matter for voice search? Because voice searches function the same way as a text search. That is to say; location comes into play. Don’t sleep on the importance of location.

3. Keep it Short and Sweet

In general, it’s already a good idea to keep your titles as short as possible. Besides resulting in stronger, more concise writing, it gets the point across faster.

To take full advantage of the massive power of voice search, you’re going to need to keep things short. Short. Remember, searches are predicated on an algorithm.

Be it Google, Amazon, or Apple; each company has painstakingly made sure their algorithm is tailored to users.

Think About How You Phrase Questions on an Everyday Basis.

They’re often shorter sentences, most likely. Your customers are going to use their digital assistant in much the same way. You’ll want to start taking natural phrasing into consideration.

That goes for everything from content titles to metadata tags. The shorter and more concise, the likelier a digital assistant will be to pull your result.

4. Phrasing Matters…A Lot

Of course, keywords still matter. And you’re going to need to incorporate everything we just discussed into coming up with the right keywords and phrases.

To come up with the best phrases for a voice search function, you’ll want to think about your user. More so, think about the way your user is going to talk.

This type of prediction will help you emphasize natural phrasing. And while traditional SEO methods involve a bit of prediction, voice functions make it easy for you.

Your user will start his or her phrase with one of four phrases:

What

How

Where

Why

Make sure to incorporate these into your article titles to get better results.

5. Your SERP is More Important Than Ever

If you’re new to the world of SEO, your SERP is your overall ranking. The lower your SERP, the lower your ranking on Google and vice versa.

And ultimately, a search is only going to yield one result. If it isn’t yours, you’re out of luck.

That means that it’s more important than ever that you focus on increasing your ranking. Use traditional plug-ins and methods to boost your results and climb to the top.

While the top result isn’t ALWAYS the result a digital assistant pulls, it grabs a result from the first page.

Remember, your SERP is about more than just your content. Do everything you can to raise your ranking.

Get the Traffic You Deserve

Voice search functionality isn’t going anywhere. It’s up to you and your business to adapt to the radical changes that this exciting new tech will bring. But remember, we’re happy to help with your website!

Be sure to look into SEO Booster PRO, our easy to use and install Search Engine Optimization plugin for your WordPress site. You’ll have instant access to everything from analytics to keyword planning!

Have any questions or comments? Get in touch! We’d love to hear from you.